HIGH DOSES GONE WILD

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TOXICITY OF B6

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So many of us fail to study the supplements that we take, and trust our bodies to inadequately trained people trying to sell vitamins. It’s a multi-billion dollar business.

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In my first posts on this site April 2009, I warned about several vitamins that can be toxic. Yet I see so many people who are taking harmful doses. Many have harmful cardiovascular effects, as I posted later after publication by a colleague at Mayo Clinic.

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Vitamin B6 is almost always found in high doses in “energy” drinks and in higher and higher doses in vitamins. I have seen patients taking 11,000 times higher dose than the recommended daily allowance, the RDA.

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Eleven thousand times higher dose.

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Eleven thousand.

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No wonder they are barely able to move due to nerve pain from scalp to toe. So severe they cannot tolerate anyone touching the skin. And they are seeking opioids? to relieve pain?

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Vitamin B6 can cause severe nerve pain and much worse. Damage may not be reversible, but if it is, it may take more than one year.

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From Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Herbs and Botanicals website

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High B6 intakes can have toxic effects including sensory and motor neuropathies, and some case reports of neurotoxicity have not been reversible (29). B6 levels can also be elevated due to environmental exposures or genetic defects (1).

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At the same time, because PLP is the metabolically active form of B6, it is thought to be responsible in instances of vitamin B6 toxicity (29). High circulating pyridoxine levels may have direct toxic effects on peripheral sensory ganglia neurons in the lower bloodÂ–nerve barrier, whereas the bloodÂ–brain barrier protects neurons in those regions from higher levels (35). The negative impact of B6 upon levels of other B vitamins appears to be dose-dependent and occur with chronic exposure (29).

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Warnings

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Long-term intake of high doses vitamin B6 can lead to nerve problems (29).

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Adverse Reactions

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High concentrations of vitamin B6 may result in severe peripheral sensory neuropathies and ataxia. Toxicities have reversed following discontinuation in some instances (37), but some case reports of neurotoxicity have not been reversible (29).

.Case reports

Irreversible sensory ataxia in octogenarians: Three elderly patients in their eighties presented with sensory ataxia (lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements) and signs of polyneuropathy (damage or disease affecting peripheral nerves) for 3Â–8 months. Pyridoxine 600 mg daily was consumed for 3Â–10 years in a B1-6-12-combination tablet. B6 blood levels were markedly elevated at 66Â–104x ULN. After 2 years of vitamin discontinuation, the patients showed no significant improvement in either neuropathy or gait, and no other likely cause for neuropathy in these patients could be identified (29).

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Severe sensorimotor neuropathy: Due to B6 hypervitaminosis in a 75-year-old white man, accompanied by yellowish-brown skin pigmentation. Discontinuation of B6 led to improvement 1 year later, when he no longer used a wheelchair and could walk without a cane. Skin color also resolved, but ataxic signs were still present (38).

Nancy,
There is now a FB group for those suffering from B6 toxicity. We have members that are toxic with NO supplementation. They are toxic from just a high protein diet. Many are healing from their toxicity.

Hi, I have a friend who was taking a 3000mg daily dose of B6 for almost one year and now she is experience movement difficulty. what kind of treatment does she need? she just had tested for b6 toxicity but results are not ready yet.

I have a very high B6 test score along with numbness and tingling and burning. Dr. asked me to stop B6 supplementation but I have never taken B6. However, I took SSRI’s for about 15 years and when I stopped taking them the numbness and tingling and burning started. Doctors took a myriad of tests and it turned out that I had Lyme. I have been treated for Lyme but still have the numbness and burning and tingling. In fact, it’s worse. I recently had my genetics tested. I have the MTHFR mutation. I found some studies that show that I am actually deficient in B6 but it shows up on the pyridoxine bloodwork as an overload. This is all very VERY confusing!